Unemployment on the rise

No clear system for calculating unemployment rate in the country

July 6, 2011- Unemployment rates throughout the country are expected to rise in 2011, according to economist Louis Hobeika, interviewed by Al-Liwaa daily on Tuesday (July 5).
Louis Hobeika suggested a package of solutions to cut down unemployment rates in four steps:

1.Restructure the economic tissue, meaning that the State should redraft its economic policies according to the requirements of the labor market
2.Reconsider the educational systems
3.Boost the productive sectors
4.Encourage banks to facilitate small and medium-sized loans for individual projects

Talking to Al-Liwaa, economist Elie Yashoui said calculating unemployment rates should be done annually at the beginning of each year, according to the standards of the International Labor Organization. However, he said, there is no such system for conducting surveys here and thus all statistics and figures are merely assumptions.
While there are no specific measuring standards for unemployment in the country, estimates have put unemployment rates at 15 percent after the July war of 2006 and at eight percent in 2008.